Raquel's Trade
Part 2: Cyndi Speaks Out
by Dr. Mercurious
Cyndi was not a happy porcupine. Having her weekend getaway cut short with her sweetie-bear Byron was annoying but understandable; Byron was trying to get promoted to shop foreman and the only way to do that was to put in for some lousy shifts. Having it cut short and STILL coming home at 3 am...well, that was just all sorts of wrong. It seemed the universe had conspired against her. First, she had forgotten her pocketbook at the campsite and had to go back for it. Then, she got a flat halfway from Byron's place. As a final touch, she had gotten stopped for speeding. It almost made her want to flare her dark red quills except the last thing she needed right now was to ruin her hiking clothes. Her one thought as she parked in front of her apartment building was for her bed. Changing out of her clothes first was optional.
Much to her tired surprise, she saw the outside window to her apartment was lit. Her roomie and best friend Raquel always turned in early whenever she stayed home on a Saturday night, which was often. I wonder if she actually went out on a date, Cyndi thought. She did say she had a visitor when I talked to her earlier. Cyndi knew she was attractive but compared to Raquel's buff bod and double cleavage she was second-rate. Unfortunately, Raquel's tail looked like it had been shaved and then chewed on, something the tiger had lived with since birth. It gave Raquel a terrible complex; she thought everyone considered her ugly because of it. It frustrated Cyndi to no end that there were a few guys who would have really liked to gotten to know her roommate better but Raquel just couldn't pick out the admiring glances from amongst the admittedly many looks of disgust. The idea that Raquel had gone out on another date after such a long time -- last one was junior year in college, she thought -- woke her up like a good night's sleep.
Very quietly Cyndi unlocked the front door and slipped in. The kitchen was dark and she could hear the TV on in the lit parlor. They must have been waiting up for me, Cyndi thought. She looked at the back of the couch and grinned at seeing the back of two blonde heads leaning against each other. From her position, she could very faintly make out the twin buzz of tigers snoring.
Aw, they're snuggling Cyndi thought gleefully. The back to the other head looked female, something that didn't surprise her. Raquel, whenever she had one too many drinks in her, would flirt with other femfurs. Cyndi had suspected her roomie of being a closet bisexual or repressed lesbian for some time. Wow, from wallflower to coming out of the closet in one night. Gotta be a record. She snuck towards the couch as quietly as she could manage; she knew she should wait until tomorrow but she just had to see. Peeking over the back of the couch, she took a good look.
She screamed. There were certainly two female tiger heads leaning against each other, all right -- they were just sharing the same body.
Instantly the sleeping figure sprang awake. In an amazing display of non-agility it pitched forward, careened off of the TV which tipped backwards, and somehow managed to flop on its back, its heads pointing in Cyndi's direction. Both pair of eyes fluttered open and looked at her.
"Ow," the right head complained in Raquel's voice.
"Thanks for the wake-up, roomie," drawled the other in an identical voice. "Next time, try dynamite. It's subtler."
Cyndi stared as the figure -- now that the panic rush was fading both heads did look like Raquel, although the one on the right had slightly different markings -- picked itself up off the floor to affix twin glares at her.
"Um...Raquel?" Cyndi ventured. She still wasn't sure.
"Yeeeeeessssssss?" The left head drawled.
"Um...you did know you have two heads, right?" Even to her own ears the statement sounded lame, but her brain seemed to be frozen.
"Actually it's not an extra head; it's a hand puppet," came the return quip.
The right hand came up next to the right head to make puppet-hand motion while it talked. "Hi, porcupine-girl, I'm Mr. Puppet-head!"
Raquel -- Cyndi was sure it was Raquel, the chances of two furs having that same sense of humor were fortunately not good -- folded in half with roared laughter. Cyndi put her hands on her hips and tried to look long-suffering. Eventually the laughter subsided and the figure straightened up again. "Sorry," Raquel's left head apologized, wiping away tears of mirth from both pairs of eyes.
"If you're quite done," Cyndi nettled, "would you mind telling me just what the HELL happened to you?"
Raquel took a deep breath. "That's a long story, roomie. You'd better sit down for this one."
Cyndi took her seat on the opposite chair, repressing an involuntary quill flare. Both heads had spoken at once, and it gave her the creeps.
#
After Raquel had gotten Cyndi a bottle of Stumpwater Stout and poured herself a glass of catnip-spiked cream, she filled her best friend in on the event of the weekend. She spoke with her left head only, taking occasional sips from her drink with her right. When she was finished, Cyndi looked annoyed instead of being put at ease.
I didn't think she's take it so badly, Raquel thought.
Actually I did, came another thought. She's always been very protective of her friends.
I'd better work extra hard at calming her down, she decided. The best way to do that with Cyndi was to be blunt. Aloud, "I take it you're not a fan of my new look."
Cyndi snorted. "That's putting it mildly. Raquel, how could you do something so stupid?"
Raquel winced. Cyndi had never been one to mince words. "I don't think it was stupid at all. I've always been a freak, roomie. The only difference is that this time I got to pick my freakishness. I mean, there are a lot of advantages to having two heads."
"Enough to make up for the fact that you'll have people gawking wherever you go, all your tops will have to be tailored, and -- incidently -- you're now TWO people?"
"I am not two people," Raquel insisted with both mouths. To drive the point home, she switched from one mouth to the other with each word. "I - just - look - different - that's - all."
"Yeah and now you have a better reason not to go clubbing," Cyndi muttered quietly to herself.
Raquel overheard, having an extra set of ears to focus with. She waited until her roomie was in the middle of another swig and said, "I do? Not that I can see Wanna go out tomorrow -- oops," she corrected, glancing at the kitchen wall clock, "make that tonight? You pick the spot."
Cyndi's eyes bugged around the bottle and she sprayed fermented stumpwater in all directions. Raquel resisted the urge to go over and pound her on the back while she coughed; making a sudden move towards a stressed porcupine was never a good idea. Finally, her roomie had her breathing under enough control to come out with a confused, "what?"
Raquel double-grinned at her. "You heard me," she said with her left mouth. "I want to show off my sexy new look to as many people as possible. How many clubs can we hit in one night?"
"Well, I..." Cyndi stammered.
"Unless you want to stay in?"
Cyndi snorted. "Hell no!" She peered at Raquel. "All right, who are you and what the hell did you do with Raquel?"
"I haven't been that bad," she laughed.
"I practically had to use a crowbar the last time you went to a club with me," Cyndi countered.
"Believe me, that's a thing of the past."
Cyndi's gleeful expression turned serious. "Raquel...I think you're being overly optimistic about people's reactions towards your new look."
Raquel was about to argue but a random thought said, she might be right. Raquel had been having a lot of those since her transformation but didn't think anything of them -- it made sense to her that with an additional brain to use she'd have them. In fact, the random thoughts were downright useful. Raquel nodded with both heads reluctantly. "You might be right. I have an idea; why don't we test it out?"
"How?"
"Well, tomorrow's Sunday and I usually jog around the block. Why don't I do my jogging down Roger Williams' Park? Lots of people down there, so it'll give me a good gauge on people's reactions. You can even come with me as an impartial observer."
"I'm hardly impartial," Cyndi snorted.
"Maybe, but you'll tell me if what I see is how people are really reacting to me, as well as catch any reactions I miss. How about it?"
Cyndi stared at her bottle for a long time and Raquel feared that her longtime friend would actually turn her down, although stray thoughts chided her for her foolishness. Finally, Cyndi squared her shoulders and smiled at Raquel. "How could I refuse? What time do you want to get up?"
"I usually get up at seven, but let's say eleven. There'll be more people there."
"Sound good to me. That way I'll be able to get some sleep!"
"Yeah I've been meaning to ask you about that. Why are you home so late?"
Cyndi sighed and began her tale of woe. Raquel settled back into her chair with an inward grin; it looked like Cyndi was accepting the changes in her after all. The whole idea about her being two people was silly of course.
It was right then that another stray thought struck. Is it?